“What a joy to read a book that vividly brings the civil wars to life, and whichdoes so with such scholarly authority and balanced judgement. Ismini Pellshas produced an exemplary study here of Philip Skippon, a prominent, seniorgeneral in the New Model Army. Yet this book does much more than simplyrescue Skippon from the historical shadow of Cromwell or Fairfax or providethe attention that his remarkable military and political career and central rolein the civil wars ‘deserves’; Pells provides a lesson in how to write serious historicalbiography.”Alan James, King’s College London for the International Journal of Military Historyand Historiography